Villanova guard's versatility should play well in pros

Is Foye the next Wade?

FRAN BLINEBURY, Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Monday, June 26, 2006

The final horn had barely stopped sounding and the Miami Heat players were still jumping and celebrating their freshly minted title on the court in Dallas when every other team in the NBA was scrambling to find the next Dwyane Wade.

In a copycat league in a copycat world, the recent rule changes that have made life easier on the perimeter for scoring guards plus Wade's amazing playoff run have made him basketball's version of the XBox or the iPod — everybody wants one.

Enter Randy Foye, who is coming off a senior season at Villanova during which he was first among equals in a four-guard lineup frequently employed by the Wildcats.

The 6-3, 205-pound Foye is part New Age and part throwback. He's not a point guard and not a shooting guard. Just a guard, who can get a shoulder in front of every defender and drive to the hoop or pull up into an open spot and stick a mid-range jumper.

"I don't like to think of myself as playing any one type of role," Foye said. "I like to think I can do a lot of different things in a game — whatever my team needs from me at a specific time."

He has been described as a prototypical New York-style combination guard, which means he is both versatile and fearless and always can find a way to create a scoring opportunity for himself. He has great footwork and an excellent crossover dribble and seems to get better when he gets into traffic and has to resort to a second or third move to get clear.

Like Wade, Foye has surprising strength that allows him to twist and turn and almost always find a way to get his shot off.

"I'm flabbergasted watching him," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said after running into Foye last season. "He's mean, and I mean that in a complimentary way."

Foye is resourceful and relentless, traits he developed while growing up without parents on the hardscrabble streets of Newark, N.J. His father was killed in a motorcycle accident when Foye was 3. He was abandoned by his mother at 6 and raised by his grandmother.

"It was just a matter of knowing what could happen if you slip up or go in the wrong direction," Foye told Basketball Times. "Where I'm from, there aren't many people who have positive information for you or can influence you in a positive way. Growing up in a tough area, bad things are always going on around you, so you have to get good people around you."

Foye found a good environment for four years at Villanova and eventually became the top scorer on a team that went to the Elite Eight and pushed him into the draft spotlight.

The leading point guard candidates are Marcus Williams of Connecticut, Rajon Rondo of Kentucky and Foye's Villanova teammate Kyle Lowry.

The downside to Foye is his size and the fact he does not possess the ball-distributing skills to play the point in the NBA. Foye has improved his 3-point shooting, hitting at a 35 percent clip as a senior, and is very good at coming off a screen for catch-and-shoots.

But what makes him especially attractive is his headiness and the instincts that seem to make him a natural leader. In fact, he was one of the key players on the U.S. team that won the gold medal last summer at the World University Games.

"I think I'm here to give everyone who thinks they're down and out a little hope," Foye said. "It's like, 'If he can do it, then I can do it.' "